Amsterdam art, off the beaten path

Rembrandt was one of the world's greatest etchers, creating prints from copper plates on a wooden press. In a new wing, the museum rotates its nearly complete collection of Rembrandt's 290 etchings (www.rembrandthuis.nl).

Grand Amsterdam

Privacy-seeking celebrities stay at the cloistered Grand Amsterdam. That tradition dates back 500 years when A-listers like William of Orange and Maria de'Medici were guests at the convent turned royal palace.

The Council Chamber where Queen Beatrix held her civil wedding ceremony in 1966 features painted and carved wood panels and a massive table carved with animals representing the four points of a compass. Weddings are still performed in the exquisite marriage chamber, commissioned by city officials in 1925.

At the entrance to the hotel's cafe hangs the postwar mural "Asking Children," by Karel Appel. The 1949 work, depicting children begging for food, caused such a controversy when it was hung in front of the then town hall's canteen that the city hid it for a decade (www.thegrand.nl).